Clàudia Pons-Moll
- Full professor in the Dep. of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics of the U Barcelona. PhD in Catalan Philology (2004) with the dissertation "Consonantal Contacts in Balearic Catalan. Description and Analysis", finalist with special mention of the award Premi Claustre de Doctors de la Universitat de Barcelona to doctoral dissertations (2006 edition, with 88 candidates). My research and teaching areas are phonology, morphology, linguistic theory, and linguistic variation. I was benefited with a PhD grant from the Generalitat de Catalunya (1999FI 00478) during the period 1999-2002. I have been adjunct professor in the Departament de Filologia Catalana of the Universitat de Barcelona (2003-2006; 2011-2012) and in the Departament de Filologia Catalana of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2004-2007). During the period 2008-2010, I was benefited with a Juan de la Cierva research contract (MICINN-UAB) to carry out a project on the phonology of Romance languages, ascribed to the coordinated project "Microvariation: syntactic and morphophonological features" (MICINN-UAB; PI: Carme Picallo). Along with Josefina Carrera-Sabaté, I am the director of the interuniversitary teaching/research project The sounds of Catalan (UB-UAB-UdL-URV-UiB-UPF), with funding from the Generalitat de Catalunya (2008MQD-00189; PI: Joan Solà; 2010MQD-00193, PI: Claudia Pons-Moll), the Universitat de Barcelona, the Institut Ramon Llull, the Casa de les Llengües. The project was also awarded by the RecerCaixa program (RecerCaixa 2011, PI: Claudia Pons-Moll). <http://www.ub.edu/sonscatala/en>. I have presented the results of my research in several international conferences (MFM, GLOW, NELS, OCP, Going Romance, LSRL, Phonetics and Phonology in Iberia, ConSole, North American Phonology Conference, LabPhon, International Morphology Meeting, Decembrettes, Colloquium on Generative Grammar, Cuny Phonology Forum, etc.), international journals, books and specialized volumes (Linguistic Inquiry, Probus, Phonology, Catalan Journal of Linguistics, Acta Linguistica Hungarica, Romance languages and linguistic theory 2002 (Benjamins, 2004), Prosodies (De Gruyter Mouton, 2005), Romance languages and linguistic theory 2009 (Benjamins, 2011), Romance languages and linguistic theory 2010 (Benjamins, 2012), The Dialect Laboratory. Dialects as a testing ground for theories of language change (SLC, Benjamins, 2012), Romance phonetics and phonology (OUP, in press), Proceedings of NELS-40, 2013; Proceedings of ConSOLE X, 2002, and in Romance journals, such as Caplletra, Estudis Romànics, Catalan Review, Zetischrift fur Katalanistik, Symposia Philologica, Randa, Llengua & Literatura, Estudios Catalanes, Revista de Linguistica Occitana, etc.
-I have attended two linguistic summer institutes organized by the Linguistic Society of America (1999: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; 2005: Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Harvard University), and I have been visiting scholar at the Department of Linguistics at UMass during the period January-May 2010 (stay sponsored by John J. McCarthy and funded by a José Castillejo grant; ref. JC2009-00277). I have also been visting scholar at Freiburg University ([falls of] 2007-2013), at the University College London (Spring 2014), at the University of Washington in Saint Louis (Fall 2016), and the University of Buenos Aires (February 2018), where I taught, respectively, lectures on Optimality Theory, underlying representations, and syllable structure and sonority. I have published the book La teoria de l'optimitat. Una introduccio aplicada al catala de les Illes Balears (PAM, 2007). I have edited, along with Maria-Rosa Lloret, various specialized books (including Lingüística i gramàtiques, Noves aproximacions a la fonologia i la morfologia del català. Volum d'homenatge a Max W. Wheeler, and Clàssics d’ahir i d’avui en la gramàtica del catala). Along with Josefina Carrera-Sabaté, I have edited the book Aplicacions de la fonètica. With Joan Mascaró, I won the Premi d'Investigació Cultural Francesc de Borja Moll (Institut Menorqui d'Estudis; Ajuntament de Ciutadella) for the project "Grammatical Study of Minorcan Catalan", which is in process of elaboration. During the period March-December 2012, I collaborated in the proof-reading and the completion of the phonology and the morphology chapters of the Gramàtica de la llengua catalana (IEC) (PI: [Joan Solà], Gemma Rigau, Manuel Pérez-Saldanya). Along with Maria-Rosa Lloret, I am principal investigator of the project “Fenómenos de interfaz fonética-fonología-morfología desde la perspectiva de la variación lingüística (FFI2016-76245-C3-3-P). I am also member of the Grup d'Estudi de la Variació (UB, PI: Lluís Payrató), and external collaborator of the Center for Theoretical Linguistics (UAB) (http://filcat.uab.cat/clt). I have been member D of GLOW.
-I have attended two linguistic summer institutes organized by the Linguistic Society of America (1999: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; 2005: Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Harvard University), and I have been visiting scholar at the Department of Linguistics at UMass during the period January-May 2010 (stay sponsored by John J. McCarthy and funded by a José Castillejo grant; ref. JC2009-00277). I have also been visting scholar at Freiburg University ([falls of] 2007-2013), at the University College London (Spring 2014), at the University of Washington in Saint Louis (Fall 2016), and the University of Buenos Aires (February 2018), where I taught, respectively, lectures on Optimality Theory, underlying representations, and syllable structure and sonority. I have published the book La teoria de l'optimitat. Una introduccio aplicada al catala de les Illes Balears (PAM, 2007). I have edited, along with Maria-Rosa Lloret, various specialized books (including Lingüística i gramàtiques, Noves aproximacions a la fonologia i la morfologia del català. Volum d'homenatge a Max W. Wheeler, and Clàssics d’ahir i d’avui en la gramàtica del catala). Along with Josefina Carrera-Sabaté, I have edited the book Aplicacions de la fonètica. With Joan Mascaró, I won the Premi d'Investigació Cultural Francesc de Borja Moll (Institut Menorqui d'Estudis; Ajuntament de Ciutadella) for the project "Grammatical Study of Minorcan Catalan", which is in process of elaboration. During the period March-December 2012, I collaborated in the proof-reading and the completion of the phonology and the morphology chapters of the Gramàtica de la llengua catalana (IEC) (PI: [Joan Solà], Gemma Rigau, Manuel Pérez-Saldanya). Along with Maria-Rosa Lloret, I am principal investigator of the project “Fenómenos de interfaz fonética-fonología-morfología desde la perspectiva de la variación lingüística (FFI2016-76245-C3-3-P). I am also member of the Grup d'Estudi de la Variació (UB, PI: Lluís Payrató), and external collaborator of the Center for Theoretical Linguistics (UAB) (http://filcat.uab.cat/clt). I have been member D of GLOW.
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (19)
Uploads
Papers and reviews (selection) by Clàudia Pons-Moll
Palabras clave: fonología, peso prosódico y ritmo, orden de palabras, binomios
[en] The phonological properties of Spanish irreversible binomials
Abstract: Based on a detailed analysis of the 350 irreversible binomials in Spanish listed in Almela Pérez (2006), this article reviews the phonological properties that characterize these coordinated structures in Spanish, which is unprecedented research to date. The article focuses on the prosodic, metric, rhythmic, and phonotactic characteristics of these types of binomials. It proves relevant not only due to the scarcity of works focused on this topic in Spanish but also because the structural distributions observed in binomials, undetectable in other areas, shed light on the role of each of the factors cited as carriers of prosodic weight (for example, the number of syllables or the complexity of syllable onsets) within Spanish phonology.
Keywords: phonology, prosodic weight and rhythm, word order, binomials
Abstract: Based on a detailed analysis of the 350 irreversible binomials in Spanish listed in Almela Pérez (2006), this article reviews the phonological properties that characterize these coordinated structures in Spanish, which is unprecedented research to date. The article focuses on the prosodic, metric, rhythmic, and phonotactic characteristics of these types of binomials. It proves relevant not only due to the scarcity of works focused on this topic in Spanish but also because the structural distributions observed in binomials, undetectable in other areas, shed light on the role of each of the factors cited as carriers of prosodic weight (for example, the number of syllables or the complexity of syllable onsets) within Spanish phonology.
The results, derived from a statistical analysis that combines structural and extralinguistic variables, show that the most common solution is the lack of vowel reduction and the lack of vowel opening (non-nativization), whereas the rest of the patterns, with a full nativization or a partial nativization of the loans, are marginal, and their occurrence depends on factors such as the oxytone or paroxytone character of the loan, the vowel quality discrepancy or coincidence within the same loan, and the front or the back character of the involved unstressed and stressed vowels. The study also considers social variables, such as sex, and shows that innovative patterns, not present in the native Catalan lexicon, are more frequent in the productions of women than in those of men.
L’objectiu d’aquest estudi és descriure i analitzar les realitzacions dels manlleus en què concorren una vocal mitjana tònica i una vocal mitjana àtona en la varietat del català central parlada a l’àrea de Barcelona. Amb aquesta finalitat, s’ha dut a terme un experiment de producció i un experiment de judicis de naturalitat amb 20 parlants de l’àrea de Barcelona, 10 dones i 10 homes d’entre 30 i 46 anys. Els participants han hagut de pronunciar —a partir d’estímuls visuals— un conjunt de 93 manlleus plans i aguts amb concurrència de vocals mitjanes tòniques i àtones, i han hagut de valorar —a partir d’estímuls sonors acompanyats d’imatge— la naturalitat dels diferents patrons de realització vocàlica possibles per a cadascun dels 93 manlleus enquestats (390 estímuls en total, tenint en compte que la majoria de manlleus considerats admeten 4 patrons possibles i que una minoria n’admeten més de 4).
Els resultats, fruit d’una anàlisi estadística que combina variables estructurals i socials, demostren que la solució més freqüent és la manca de reducció vocàlica combinada amb la manca d’obertura de la vocal mitjana tònica (no nativització), mentre que la resta de solucions possibles, l’aplicació de tots dos processos (nativització), o l’aplicació de només un dels processos implicats (nativitzacions parcials), són més aviat marginals i la seva ocurrència està subjecta a variables com ara el caràcter oxíton o paroxíton del manlleu, la coincidència o discrepància de timbre de les vocals en el marc del mateix manlleu, i el caràcter anterior o posterior de les vocals tòniques i àtones. L’estudi també considera variables socials, com ara el sexe, i mostra que els patrons innovadors, no presents en el lèxic natiu del català, són més freqüents en les produccions de les dones que no pas en les dels homes.
The results for first graders show generalized misspellings in which schwa and [u] are systematically associated with the graphemes a and u, regardless these vowels alternate with vowels in stressed position or do not. This behavior clearly supports the Lexicon Optimization Hypothesis, according to which there is a first stage in language acquisition in which, from all possible input candidates (Richness of the Base), the learner selects the one that matches the adult output representation as the optimal input (Smolensky 1996).
The results for second graders show a noticeable decline in misspellings for alternating schwa and [u]. This leads to think that morphophonemic alternations are progressively incorporated and taken into account in the process of UR construction. Of course, this better performance in the spelling of alternating vowels might also be a consequence of a better familiarity with conventional spelling. Importantly, though, the decline in misspellings for alternating schwa and [u] coincides with an increase in spelling mistakes for non-alternating vowels. In our view, this undescores the influence of conventional orthography in children’s spelling choices, points to the influence of phonology, and more specifically to a stage of vacillation with respect to the UR of non-alternating forms, with apparent overgeneralizations. This behavior, thus, may support the free-ride approach to morphophonemic learning (McCarthy 2005).
The results for both first graders and second graders show differences in the spelling between back vowels (with fewer mistakes) and non-back vowels (with more mistakes), and we argued this might be related to the fact that the children have to deal with a more reduced typology of output-input alternations for back vowels (two-to-one) than for non-back vowels (three-to-one). This is evidence, again, for the role of morphophonemic alternations (i.e. morphology) in children’s spelling choices. The results for both graders also reveal that more productive alternations, such as the ones found between a base and the diminutive, are more transparent to the kids than others: whereas diminutives were generally spelled correctly, non-diminutives were not, giving support again to the influence of morphophonemic alternations, and their transparency, in children’s spelling choices.
In this paper we analyze, from an experimental and formal perspective, the interaction and the implicational relationships between vowel reduction and word-final nasal deletion in Catalan loanwords. We present the results of both a production and a perception test carried on 31 speakers from the Barcelona area. Loanwords susceptible to undergo both nasal deletion and vowel reduction display different patterns. The most common solution is underapplication of both processes, followed closely by underapplication of nasal deletion alone and at a large distance by the application of both processes. Finally, underapplication of vowel reduction and application of nasal deletion is unattested, that is, it is an impossible nativization pattern. The typology of possible and impossible nativizations and the implicational relationships between the processes under scrutiny are analyzed in the framework of Harmonic Grammar under Weighted Scalar Constraints, following recent proposals by Hsu & Jesney (2017, 2018).
Keywords: loanwords, (im)possible nativizations, implicational relationships, Harmonic Grammar, Weighted Scalar Constraints, Catalan
microvariation found in verb-enclitic groupings in Barcelona Catalan, with stress stability, in Formentera Catalan, with stress shift to the penultimate and the last syllable of the whole sequence, and in Mallorca and Menorca Catalan, with stress shift to the last syllable. We argue that stress shift in Formentera Catalan conforms directly to the unmarked pattern of nominal stress in Catalan, that is, a right-aligned moraic trochee, with the constraint All-Feet-Right undominated, leading to final and penultimate stress. In Barcelona Catalan, the effects of this constraint are inhibited by an anti-alignment constraint prohibiting the right edge of a foot from coinciding with the right edge of a clitic. In Mallorca and Menorca Catalan, stress shift is also understood as a strategy to meet the unmarked nominal stress pattern of Catalan, although in these dialects the anti-alignment constraint is also undominated, leading to catalexis, in this case a melodically empty mora, and thus to final stress.